Friday was dedicated me time. I thought about going to town to do the shopping, but decided against it and I’m so glad that I did.
After I dropped Murrin off at Playschool I took Ellie down to the canal for a walk to the dam and back. It was fun walking along the dyke and looking at the page wire fence they’ve installed along the water, I could see that spiders had made webs in many of the rectangles. It made me think of an apartment building for spiders. Heh.
After I got home and had some food, I got Bailey out of the paddock and did some groundwork with her, trying to see and feel when she was reaching properly, yielding her hind end, backing circles well and really feeling of me on the halter rope going forwards and backwards. We got to rocking her weight forward and back with no brace in between and the halter knot barely moving, which is good progress. After checking her out on the end of the lead rope I saddled her and it’s the first time she hasn’t gotten tight with cinching. She still moves her feet a bit, but because of the work on the end of the lead rope, I as able to support her to stand still a little better. This still needs work on my feel and timing, but it will come.
After I’d saddled her, we did a bit more with the leadrope then I realized that my flag and the tarp I wanted to use were up by the house. Off we went to find them. I tied her leadrope off to the saddle horn, let her graze a bit and went down to get the flag. She felt she needed my support so she followed me down there. Then she felt confident and wandered off towards the front of the house with me behind her. She took one look at the grass below our steep garden and headed that way – straight down a 45 degree slope! She really had to use her body to get down it and there was ZERO reaction to the cinch! This was a happy day for me. I followed her down, got the tarp which was down there, anyway and then led her to the culdesac to do some more groundwork working on getting her freely moving off of the stirrup, doing some more tarp work while she was moving and asking her to move over the tarp on the ground. All of this went swimmingly with good progress. She had the most trouble when I held the tarp on her and it started to slide off her hind end slowly. A few repeats of that and it was old hat. I spent a good hour and a half on the ground with her and felt like we’d made good progress so I put her up after doing her feet and got Maya out to go for a ride.
Maya and I did a little groundwork, and I realized that Bailey is better at it! I have more work to do with Maya. I then rode the soft footing loop trail down to a friend’s house on Carlson Road and back again through the woods. Working lots on the soft feel at walk and trot, transitions, using my leg less and less, some short lopes and some leg yielding at the walk, really trying to feel of her and use my leg less. Buck says we all use our legs too much, so I’m striving to get better at asking with less and only doing more if I don’t get a change when I ask. This is going to take some dilligence on my part, but it’s going to be oh, so worth it. On the way home I felt her just slightly start to take over and anticipate where we would go so I spent some time in that spot doing random things, working on backing circles, turns and HQ/FQ dance until she was feeling more of what I was thinking. We rested there a bit and then headed home. Next year I’m going to have to do some better conditioning, I realize, now that I’m loping so much more. My horses are fit enough for walk and trot work and the hills we have around here at those gaits, but loping really takes it out of them. That also means I’ll have to ride more. 
My stall is booked for the Buck Brannaman clinic in High River, now I just need a ride for my horse! It will come!
If anyone wants to get me an awesome birthday present this year (*cough* big Four OH! *cough*) , I’ve learned that McGinnis Meadows Ranch in Montana offers horsemanship weeks in the winter for $800, including a mid day meal and accommodations. I’d love to go down over my birthday and ride for a week with them! Just a thought… talk amongst yourselves. I’ll start saving just in case…
